


What Happens in the Elevator

by ChettaDrabbles (KOranges)



Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 17:59:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11064222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KOranges/pseuds/ChettaDrabbles
Summary: It was the new guy's first day and Steve was NOT going to be the creep who didn't leave him alone. So what if he was smart. And accomplished. And a veteran. And really, incredibly attractive. He only had eight hours until the end of the day and he could make it that long without making an ass out of himself.Probably. Maybe. If Natasha didn't get involved.





	What Happens in the Elevator

**Author's Note:**

> Each of these drabbles are inspired by a prompt I received during an eight month long writing challenge. I'll only be sharing my favorites but every Tuesday & Thursday and I'll post a new one
> 
> Prompt: '"So, you just keep all of this locked up in here like it's no big deal?"

From where he was sitting, Steve could just barely make out the back of his head. Him being James. The new guy. He’d processed the man’s HR application when he was hired and as a result knew way too much about him. Steve was used to having the scandalous details on everyone’s lives because he was the Human Resources rep for the department. But typically that included stupid things like the fact that Brock Rumlow may have graduated from some Ivy League school but he did so by the skin of his teeth on academic probation a full two years late. Or that their boss, Pierce, has had four different secretaries quit because of how much of a creep he was. Two filed actual harassment complaints against him before quitting. 

The new guy came with six letters of recommendation. SIX. And not only was one written by Howard Stark, former owner of the entire freaking company, the other was by Nicholas Fury, chairman of the board and COO. Steve was practically vibrating in his seat trying to figure out a non-creepy way to introduce himself. 

“It’s his first day.” Natasha pointed out. “It’s probably perfectly normal to just go up and say hi.” 

Steve shook his head forcefully. “I can’t.” 

“Don’t you kind of have to?” She asked. There were about a million forms James needed to sign. 

“Did you know he’s done three tours in Iraq?” Steve whispered. “And he’s still a part of the Wounded Warriors program.” 

Natasha barely tried to hide her exasperated eye roll. “You may have mentioned it.” 

“He studied English at Columbia and graduated Summa Cum Laude.” Steve added. 

“You may have mentioned that too.” She said with a snort. 

“It’s impressive.” Steve defended. “More impressive than my community college art degree.” 

“It was more impressive the first five times you told me.” Natasha shot back. She walked away with her coffee and left Steve to obsess over all of the ways that he could screw everything up by going over to talking to him. 

Steve honestly couldn’t believe he was being this shallow. He had been fine during the phone interview and evaluation process. Maybe there had been a little bit of fangirling over his resume. Maybe more than a little. But he had been cool about it. But then James had actually shown up and Steve had immediately had a moment of ‘oh shit he’s hot’ before shutting down as a functional human being. 

“Natasha said you needed to see me?” James stepped over to his desk. 

It took Steve a few tries to form actual words. “Forms. I have forms. For you.” 

Instead of taking the papers from Steve’s hand, James sat at the desk across from him. “Thanks.” 

“Oh, you don’t have to fill them out right now.” Steve was blushing and wanted to melt into the floor. “I’m sure you’re really busy getting settled in. These forms are just formalities.” 

“Mine as well get them out of the way.” James just grinned at him. 

“Oh. O-ok. You…Ok.” Steve felt like an idiot. His Irish complexion did his vibrant blush approximately zero favors. He was practically glowing. He sent a quick email to Natasha while James worked to enumerate all the different ways in which he absolutely hated her. He was probably going to kill her later. Or he was at least going to try. Right after he got entirely, completely, blisteringly drunk so that he could forget today even happened. 

“This form? What’s this for?” He slid it across the table and leaned forward. 

“That’s just for the Employee Handbook. To say you reviewed it.” Steve explained. He signed. 

“What about this one?” He slid the next one over to him. 

“Health care registration.” Steve nodded. He gave James a look. Maybe he wasn’t as smart as Steve had assumed. That form had ‘HEALTH CARE REGISTRATION’ written in big block letters across the top of it. He leaned back in his chair. James smiled at him and Steve nearly knocked over his own stupid pencil holder. 

“I’ll be right back.” Steve said quickly. He was gone before the sentence was all the way out. He made a beeline for Natasha desk on the other side of the room. She was laughing at her own evil genius when she saw the look on his face. In his opinion, she was way too gleeful. 

“I think he’s stupid.” Steve whispered in a slight whine. 

“What?” Natasha seemed confused. 

“James. The forms are confusing him.” Steve said, exasperated. “I think.” 

“What?” Natasha repeated. 

“He’s asked me what every single one of them was.” Steve explained. “All of them.” 

Natasha just laughed. “Steve, he’s trying to talk to you.” 

“No.” Steve shook his head. Natasha nodded. 

“Summa Cum Laude, Steve.” Natasha pointed out. “He’s not dumb.” 

Steve just huffed. “He’s too pretty to be smart too.” 

“You know, that’s what everyone said about you when you showed up.” Natasha laughed. “Remember Coulson and the infamous coffee incident on the second day?” 

“I don’t know if I would call it infamous.” Steve’s blush started to come back. He was suddenly thankful Coulson had taken the position in Portland. That was also almost four years ago. He was pretty sure everyone already forgot that it ever happened. 

“It’s, like, how they start the sexual harassment seminars now.” Natasha nodded. Steve groaned. 

“No it’s not.” He huffed. But that didn’t stop the blush heading up his cheeks. 

“Better get back to your idiot savant then.” Natasha teased. Steve just sighed. 

All of the forms were done when he got back. All of them. Without any further questions. Steve paused for a second to make sure they were filled out properly before moving to file them. James took one look at the file cabinet they were kept in before raising an eyebrow. 

“You just keep them locked up here?” He asked. Steve shrugged. 

“Just for today. They’ll be walked down to the main office before I leave today.” He explained. 

“Where’s that?” He asked. Steve paused to look at him. James just grinned. 

“It’s where you did your interview.” Steve said as he relocked the cabinet. 

“Oh yeah.” The grin got even wider. Steve cleared his throat and looked away to keep from swooning. It was embarrassing that he was acting like a teenager just because he had a pretty face. A very pretty face. With dimples. Steve shook his head and forced himself to think of something else. 

“Can you give me a tour?” James asked. “Your name is Steve, right?” 

“Sure.” Steve nodded. “And yeah. Do you go by James or Jim?” 

James laughed. “Neither. Call me Bucky.” 

Steve paused. That was a lot less Ivy-League-Decorated-War-Vet than James. But it suited him and the stupid insufferable grin that kept making Steve turn tomato red. He reached over and unlocked the cabinets to hide his face for a moment while it returned to normal color. 

“We can start with the Human Resources and Personnel Office. They’re on level two.” He gestured for Bucky to follow him. “Have you gotten your ID badge yet?” 

“I haven’t.” Bucky shook his head. 

“That’s in that office as well. So we’ll handle that while we’re down there.” Steve nodded. 

“Thanks for your help, Steve.” Bucky smiled, genuinely, and Steve’s heart damn near came to a standstill. He was becoming convinced the man survived on sheer power from that grin alone. Steve’s knees even went a little weak. Instead of saying anything he just led the way to the elevator and pressed the call button. 

“So you’ve worked here a while?” James asked. Bucky. Steve needed to work on that. 

“About four years.” Steve nodded. He looked straight ahead and not at the smile. 

“Nat said you were former Army?” He asked. Steve nodded. 

“Enlisted. Then was medically discharged. All in all, I was in less than a year.” He shrugged. Steve saw James’ eyes go a little wide. He gave Steve a very gratuitous once over. Steve tried to stand naturally and not flex or pose or anything. Bucky just smirked at him. 

“I had to lose an arm to get them to let me go.” Bucky laughed. “How’d you manage?” 

“I wasn’t a perfect soldier.” Steve shrugged. “I think they were looking for an excuse.” 

“Hard to imagine you not being their poster boy.” Bucky shook his head. Steve smiled softly. 

“They tried. I didn’t take it too well.” He admitted. 

Luckily the elevator arrived. There were other people on board and it wouldn’t just be the two of them making awkward conversation. They crowded in with several other people. Steve hit the button and realized how tight it was actually going to be on the ride down. Bucky was literally right at his shoulder, nearly pressed into his side. 

Steve nearly raced off the elevator when they reached their level. Bucky wasn’t far behind him. The ladies in Human Resources were probably a little concerned at Steve’s weird behavior that afternoon but luckily none of them said anything. He barely formed three coherent sentences. 

“The cafeteria is one level down.” He said quietly. Bucky was still right at his shoulder. “But we mostly get our coffee from this cart right here. It’s much better.” 

May knew his order and filled him in on her nephew’s latest antics while she put together his order. He’d gotten three drinks. Black coffee for Natasha, a skim latte for himself, and an iced coffee for Bucky. Bucky who kept standing just a little too close. Steve felt like his nerves were going haywire. Every time he looked over at Bucky, the other man was just smirking at him. 

“I think that’s everything. I saw Maria take you around our office this morning.” Steve nodded. 

“Great. I think she had a few things for me to handle this afternoon.” He nodded. 

“We should head back up there then.” Steve nodded. They got an escalator to themselves this time but Bucky was still close to his side. 

He wasn’t sure how it happened. First he was just trying to press the button and then there was coffee everywhere. Both his and Natasha’s cups went fumbling out of his hands and, even worse, directly in Bucky’s direction. Steve tried to use the few napkins May had given him to clean up the mess before kneeling to pick up the now empty cups. Bucky was drenched. 

“I’m so sorry.” Steve repeated over and over. Bucky was trying to dab at the drenched shirt and pants but with no luck. Steve tried to help with the napkins but realized only as the doors opened that he was kneeling in front of Bucky, wiping at his pants frantically. 

“You know, I think we found a new story to start the sexual harassment conferences with.” Natasha said, eyes wide. Steve shot to his feet. There was a small Asian woman next to her that seemed to be experiencing some kind of internal malfunction. She was just standing there gaping at them. 

“Not again.” Steve groaned and hid his blush behind his hands. 

“I-I think we’re on the wrong level.” Bucky hit a random floor button but the doors didn’t close quite quickly enough.


End file.
